Nova 5000EX Student Learning Appliance

Fourier Systems Inc., 211 RR 620 South, Suite 112, Austin TX 78734 (512) 266-4066 www.fourier-sys.com $599.

As at-home in a cyber café as it is in a science lab, the sturdy but lightweight Nova 5000EX is all about versatility. Built to connect to Fourier’s wide range of scientific probes and function as a platform for data logging, the touch-screen controlled device also doubles as a deluxe scientific/graphing calculator and provides all of the wide-ranging functionality one would expect from a pricier tablet PC.

Like many handhelds, the sporty-looking Nova 5000EX uses the Windows CE operating system, which most PC users will find comfortably familiar. What PC users won’t get—and certainly won’t miss—is the long boot-up time. Just press the power switch and go—that’s a definite advantage in hands-on lab situations when every classroom second is needed to carry out an experiment.

Beyond the lab environment, the Nova 5000EX serves up all the personal computing essentials. Connect to the Net using Ethernet or built-in WiFi, browse the Web or check your e-mail, or fine-tune that presentation or paper using a suite of MS Office-compatible applications.

I took the Nova 5000EX down to the local caffeine emporium where it deftly sniffed out and hopped onto their invisible, toll-free info-highway. I found most Web sites pleasantly viewable on the 7-inch, 800 x 480 screen, though I did get stuck on a couple sites that didn’t adapt to the slightly lower than normal height ratio of the display by producing the necessary scroll bar.

When it came time to do some e-mailing, I was delighted with the unit’s handwriting recognition. I’d always found using handwriting recognition functions on small screened PDAs supremely frustrating, but, using the Nova 5000EX’s ample touch-screen and handy stylus, I was able to scrawl out several lines of pithy musings, pause, and watch the device suck the text into the body of my message with only an occasional misread. For some reason, handwriting recognition didn’t work so well when filling in online forms, so I quickly learned to use the floating virtual keyboard. By the time I left the café, I hardly missed my conventional keyboard at all—and it was nice not to have to shake the scone crumbs out of it. (The Nova 5000EX is slob-resistant, too.)

Schools can support their math and science curricula and improve their overall computer-to-student ratios by employing the multipurpose Nova 5000EX.